Always Crew - Tijan Page 0,104

to keep from laughing. “I think both will endure a date for us.”

She sighed again. “You don’t know Blaise—” She cut herself off. “Wait! You do. You totally know him, but yeah. Let’s do that angle. If I tell him it’s important to me, he’ll watch himself.”

Which was something I wasn’t surprised about.

Aspen was the giant pinkie finger and Blaise was wrapped around it. Totally and completely.

“We can do dinner and a movie, if you’d like?”

“I would.”

We decided on a venue and a time, and then I delivered the news.

Cross’s response was, “What?!”

I laughed. This was going to be a fun night.

Aspen picked a diner that was off-campus and set a little off the normal path, meaning when we pulled up, the parking lot was half-empty. Cross parked the truck and just shook his head. “Why are we doing this?”

I laughed.

I’d been laughing most the day.

“Because Aspen called and it’s Aspen.”

He growled. “That doesn’t work for me. Why the fuck are we doing this?”

I grinned. “Because Aspen called and it’s—”

He threw open his door and stalked out.

I laughed, following. Meeting around at the front, Cross shook his head. “You owe me for this.” And his hand dropped to my ass, giving me a good squeeze.

My mouth dropped, but I felt a whole zing go through me. Yeah. Maybe I would owe him, and he relaxed, grinning. “You okay with that?”

I was just fine with that. A full fucking throb was starting in me, and now I was pissed we had to do dinner and a movie.

I hadn’t told him about the movie part yet.

“So.”

Aspen looked at me.

I looked back. “So.”

Cross and Blaise were glaring at each other.

The waitress had come and gone. We had our drinks. The orders were put in, now we waited. And we had ordered so quickly, because yeah, the silence. All the silence.

Aspen cleared her throat, picking up her drink. “So, um…Cross.”

He looked at her.

She swallowed, her head dipping. “How’s your sister?”

Immediately, the tension slipped into a different feel. Blaise settled back, a cocky smirk coming to his face and Cross’ face darkened, tightening. He nodded at his brother. “He hasn’t told you? From what I’ve heard, she’s talking more to him than me.”

Blaise grunted. “She’s your twin.”

“You got an opinion on my relationship with Taz?”

And, “When I get pulled into listening to her complain about how you’re still not taking her calls, yeah. I got an opinion,” was shot right back.

“Let’s hear it.”

“I’ve already told you. Stop ignoring your sister.”

“I’m not ignoring my sister.”

“You been to see her?”

Cross frowned. He glanced at me.

Blaise wasn’t done. “When’s the last time you talked to her? Talk-talked, like on the goddamn phone and longer than five minutes.”

Cross continued to frown.

Blaise leaned forward, the smirk gone and a scowl in its place. “Then educate me on how she and Race are doing. Oh. Wait. You can’t, because you don’t know.”

“The fuck you’re talking about?”

“Yeah. Maybe you should call your sister.”

His point was made. The mic was dropped and Blaise leaned back, that smirk coming back once more. But his eyes narrowed, and he was waiting.

Cross’ eyes narrowed right back.

The air was thick.

A shiver went down my spine.

I met Aspen’s gaze, hers was worried. I was just waiting.

With this tension, Cross was debating if he should jerk his brother over the table and throw down, once again, or move forward in a different manner.

When he drew in a breath, and his hand pressed hard into his leg, I knew he was fighting for control.

Damn.

That meant he was losing control.

I coughed and took over. My hand went to his, and I pressed my nails into the palm side of his hand, not enough to hurt, but enough to pull him out of whatever fighting mode he was fast going into, and it was my turn.

“Why are you such a jackass all the time?”

Aspen’s eyes bulged out. A shocked gargle rippled from her.

Blaise’s eyes slid, no joke, slid toward me. He looked like a cat preening for a new victim.

I had to smile because whether he was realizing it or not, I was off-limits. One, I was his brother’s girlfriend. Two, Aspen liked me. And three, I was also his girlfriend’s protector tomorrow night. Triple the protection.

I waited, enjoying this, and a second later, he made a frustrated growl. “Fucking A.”

I laughed.

The sound did it, cutting through the layers of packed air, and both brothers took in some of that oxygen, moving it through their lungs.

Aspen seemed to be panting, her eyes